Simplify assign-to-agent flow to issue assignee REST APIs with canonical bot login resolution

[Copilot]

This updates assign_to_agent to resolve Copilot through canonical aliases in AGENT_LOGIN_NAMES (favoring [bot] logins) and to stop using agent task APIs. Assignment now uses issue-scoped REST checks and direct issue assignee mutation as requested.

• Alias resolution and canonical bot login

  • Prioritizes [bot] aliases (notably copilot-swe-agent[bot]) in AGENT_LOGIN_NAMES.
  • Resolves and caches assignable login aliases directly, instead of resolving user IDs.

• Issue-scoped assignability check

  • Uses issue-level REST assignability checks:
    • GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/assignees/{assignee}
  • Removes repository-level assignee capability checks from this path.
  • Adds stricter/clearer issue number and client capability validation for this endpoint.

• Direct issue assignment (no task API)

  • Replaces agent task creation with direct issue assignee mutation:
    • POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/assignees
  • Sends canonical bot login in assignees[].
  • Updates assignment matching to login-based checks (including alias recognition), not user-ID-based checks.

• Error guidance and behavior alignment

  • Updates permission/error guidance to reflect issue-assignee REST operations.
  • Removes task-API-specific handling and messaging from this flow.

• Test updates

  • Adjusts helper and integration-style JS tests to validate:
    • [bot] alias preference,
    • issue-scoped assignability checks,
    • direct issue assignee POST behavior,
    • login-based caching/matching and revised expectations.

// Assignability check (issue-scoped)
await github.request(
  "GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/assignees/{assignee}",
  { owner, repo, issue_number, assignee: "copilot-swe-agent[bot]" }
);

// Assignment (direct assignee mutation)
await github.request(
  "POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/assignees",
  { owner, repo, issue_number, assignees: ["copilot-swe-agent[bot]"] }
);

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request refactors the assign_to_agent workflow to stop using agent task APIs and instead assign Copilot by mutating issue assignees via issue-scoped REST endpoints, while also standardizing Copilot alias resolution to prefer canonical [bot] logins.

Changes:

• Prefer canonical Copilot [bot] aliases (e.g., copilot-swe-agent[bot]) and switch caching/matching to login-based behavior.
• Replace agent task creation with issue-scoped assignee checks and direct assignee mutation (GET .../assignees/{assignee} + POST .../assignees).
• Update JS tests to validate the new REST routes, alias preference, and revised error behavior.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
actions/setup/js/assign_to_agent.cjs	Switches from agent-ID/task APIs to login-based assignment and alias-aware “already assigned” checks.
actions/setup/js/assign_to_agent.test.cjs	Updates expectations for direct issue-assignee REST calls and revised 502 handling.
actions/setup/js/assign_agent_helpers.cjs	Implements issue-scoped assignee validation and direct assignee mutation; updates alias ordering.
actions/setup/js/assign_agent_helpers.test.cjs	Adjusts helper tests for login-based resolution and issue-scoped REST behavior.
.github/mcp.json	Minor formatting/compaction of MCP server config.

Copilot's findings

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Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

actions/setup/js/assign_agent_helpers.cjs:92

• The doc comment says this helper "falls back to repository-scoped checks", but validateAssigneeAlias now only uses the issue-scoped assignee endpoint and will fail without a valid issue/PR number. Updating the comment avoids misleading future callers.

/**
 * Return list of coding agent bot login names that are currently available as assignable actors
 * in this repository, preferring issue-scoped checks when issue/PR context is available
 * and falling back to repository-scoped checks.

• Files reviewed: 5/5 changed files
• Comments generated: 2

[pelikhan]

@copilot link to the official documentation from the docs and the core.info logs and the generated acction failure issue:

https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/cloud-agent/use-cloud-agent-via-the-api#using-the-issues-api

In particular, help about minting the token:

Note

If using a fine-grained personal access token, it needs the following permissions to assign Copilot to an issue:

Read access to metadata
Read and write access to actions, contents, issues and pull requests
If using a personal access token (classic), it needs the repo scope to assign Copilot to an issue.

[pelikhan]

@copilot update the agent login list to start with copilot-swe-agent[bot] - agents are always bots and always end with [bot]

[Copilot]

@copilot link to the official documentation from the docs and the core.info logs and the generated acction failure issue:

https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/cloud-agen...

Done. Updated in commits e9ff64b and 5551e63:

• copilot-cloud-agent.mdx: Added link to https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/cloud-agent/use-cloud-agent-via-the-api#using-the-issues-api, updated PAT permissions to actions, contents, issues, pull requests (replacing the old agent_tasks requirement), added classic PAT repo scope guidance, and clarified the creation step to offer both PAT types.

• assign_agent_helpers.cjs logPermissionError: updated to list fine-grained PAT (metadata read + actions/contents/issues/pull_requests read/write) and classic PAT (repo scope), with a link to the official docs.

• assign_agent_helpers.cjs generatePermissionErrorSummary (failure issue body): same token permission details with the official docs link replacing the generic REST assignees reference.

[Copilot]

@copilot update the agent login list to start with copilot-swe-agent[bot] - agents are always bots and always end with [bot]

Done. AGENT_LOGIN_NAMES now orders all [bot] aliases first: ["copilot-swe-agent[bot]", "github-copilot-enterprise[bot]", "github-copilot[bot]", "copilot-swe-agent", "github-copilot-enterprise", "github-copilot"]. Tests updated accordingly.

[github-actions]

@copilot review all comments and address unresolved review feedback. Please also summarize the remaining blockers in a brief progress update.

Generated by 👨‍🍳 PR Sous Chef · 88.4 AIC · ⌖ 0.943 AIC · ⊞ 17.1K · ◷

[pelikhan]

@copilot fix https://github.com/github/gh-aw/actions/runs/28199949836/job/83536601075

Recompile

[Copilot]

@copilot fix https://github.com/github/gh-aw/actions/runs/28199949836/job/83536601075

Recompile

Fixed in the latest commit. create_issue.test.cjs and create_pull_request.test.cjs had stale assertions expecting the old POST /agents/repos/.../tasks route — updated to POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/assignees and adjusted mock setup to cover both the GET assignability check and POST assignment calls.